Kazuya with Veikka Guftafsson (As for Japanese Kazuya Hiraide, 2009's Piolet d Or winner had actually never met Veikka before they teamed up to climb GI. He is neither interested in pursuing the 14x8000ers, although before heading for GI; he had previously climbed GII and Broad Peak)SOURCE

Kazuya Hiraide and Kei Taniguchi With Col.Manzoor Hussain President Alpine Club of PakistanSOURCE

On June 22 the team was briefed at the Alpine Club of Pakistan by its President, Manzoor Hussain, who was the Pakistani leader of the Joint Pak Japanese Expedition that made the first ascent of the 7,284 meter high Passu peak in 1978. Passu peak is connected with Shispare Peak through a long ridge.

The President of the ACP shared his experience of climbing the ridge and studying the Hassanabad glacier and the Shispare Peak from near the Passu summit. Mr Hirade Kazuy, who is a good ice climber, has earlier experience of climbing Laila and Golden peaks in Karakoram. Discussing his climbing details, he informed that his team will be attempting the 7,273 meter high Diran Peak to reach up as high as possible for acclimatization purposes only, whereas their actual target is the 7,611 meter high Shispare Peak, which he already attempted in 2007 via the Hassanabad glacier from South side.

The Base Camp is low at 3,900 meters. The Expedition intends climbing an about 1700 meter near vertical ice wall on the Southern side to reach the main ridge leading to the Shispare summit. It was agreed by the leader that this side is difficult and prone to avalanches but with experience of his last attempt he felt confident about the climb. It may be mentioned that Shispare Peak was first climbed by a Polish Expedition in 1975.

Hirade Kazuy was born in Nagano in 1979, and nowadays he is one of the best climbers of Japan. In 2009 he won the Golden Ice Axe.